Unfortunately today had a bit of an inauspicious start as we awoke to the strong smell of diesel in the cabin. We were in the process of docking in Rhodes and the stench of fuel was overwhelming. It was odd that we needed to open the door to the balcony to let in fresh air to help dispel the fumes. Standing on the balcony while we docked, we were struck by the seeming un-Greekness of the city before us. After 3 days of white washed buildings and picturesque blue domes, Rhodes had none of that. There is certainly more green given the abundance of cypress trees but the major buildings were sandstone or at least sandstone colored and the wall around the old town had turrets in various spaces. This was the easternmost island we would visit and is closer to Turkey than mainland Greece. But the day was sunny and warm and new adventures awaited.
And so we prepared to take on the day. This was another stop with no real plans so we hoped to find a beach to plop down on for a few hours like we did in Mykonos. We breakfasted and headed out into the old town early, before the crowds descended and even before many of the shops were open. We were looking to get hour history lessons in so the first stop was the Palace of the Grand Master of the Knights of Rhodes, where the the head of the Knights order stayed during the Knights Hostiliers occupation of Rhodes. One thing we learned was that there were lots of people who occupied (or tried to occupy Rhodes) including the Italians under Mussolini. One thing that the Italian occupation accomplished was to bring mosaics from the island of Cos to the palace and they were very impressive to see. Next, we visited a church which had been a pre-catholic Greek church, a Roman Catholic church, and even a mosque. And finally, we spent some time at the Archeological museum which reminded me of a scaled down version of the Alhambra in Grenada, Spain. It was very interesting but we were pretty much antinquitied out by the time we were through there.
Travel tip #13: Know your limits for looking at ancient pottery and don’t be afraid to say “Thanks but no thanks”
So we were off to find a beach. My pre-trip research informed me that there was no simple bus route to a great beach like we had in Mykonos. There is Elia Beach actually in the city but I had read about Anthony Quinn bay – yes, that Anthony Quinn – farther down the coast which sounded much nicer. We set out to find a taxi to take us there only to discover it would be about $25 each way. Since we were unlikely to spend more than 3 hours there, that seemed a steep hourly rate especially since yesterday’s transportation costs were less than $10! So we opted to walk to the beach in town and realized pretty quickly that we weren’t getting a beach day today. The water was gorgeous and much warmer than on Mykonos but the beach was all rocks.
Travel tip #14: don’t be afraid to cut bait when a plan isn’t going to work for you.
This wasn’t our idea of a quiet beach. No sand to be found anywhere. The sunbeds and umbrellas were well used and tattered. It reminded me of a grand seafront town that had seen better days (insert Blackpool joke here). So it was not to be.
Back to the old town for us to explore a different collection of small side street stalls and sidewalk cafes. We found a great lunch place where Frank had lamb souvlaki and I had Kleftiko with feta. Both were awesome and went well with the now obligatory local beer and white wine. After we were fed and watered, we spent some time shopping and even managed to pick up a few more Christmas items. By now we had spent our requisite 6 hours of traipsing about and so it was time to head back to the ship and hit the hot tub.
We soaked and sunned for a while more and watched yet another stunning sunset. Then to dinner where I have to say, things were not quite up to snuff. It was the least appealing meal of the week. It may have been because of our fabulous lunch but I suspect that the kitchen just had a bad night as a couple at a table near us looked even less happy than we were. We decided to call it an early night and start again tomorrow.
Dubious data for today:
21,909 steps and 23 floors
Days in a row where we had fabulous local food and drink: 3
Number of ships in port today: 2
Number of attempts to get this post uploaded: 12
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